• Jon P Furuno, Anthony D Harris, Marc-Oliver Wright, David M Hartley, Jessina C McGregor, Holly D Gaff, Joan N Hebden, Harold C Standiford, and Eli N Perencevich.
• Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. jfuruno@epi.umaryland.edu
• Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2007 Jun 1; 28 (6): 666-70.

ObjectiveTo quantify the value of performing active surveillance cultures for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on intensive care unit (ICU) discharge.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingMedical ICU (MICU) and surgical ICU (SICU) of a tertiary care hospital.ParticipantsWe analyzed data on adult patients who were admitted to the MICU or SICU between January 17, 2001, and December 31, 2004. All participants had a length of ICU stay of at least 48 hours and had surveillance cultures of anterior nares specimens performed on ICU admission and discharge. Patients who had MRSA-positive clinical cultures in the ICU were excluded.ResultsOf 2,918 eligible patients, 178 (6%) were colonized with MRSA on ICU admission, and 65 (2%) acquired MRSA in the ICU and were identified by results of discharge surveillance cultures. Patients with MRSA colonization confirmed by results of discharge cultures spent 853 days in non-ICU wards after ICU discharge, which represented 27% of the total number of MRSA colonization-days during hospitalization in non-ICU wards for patients discharged from the ICU.ConclusionsSurveillance cultures of nares specimens collected at ICU discharge identified a large percentage of MRSA-colonized patients who would not have been identified on the basis of results of clinical cultures or admission surveillance cultures alone. Furthermore, these patients were responsible for a large percentage of the total number of MRSA colonization-days during hospitalization in non-ICU wards for patients discharged from the ICU.

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